Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Review

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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We ran a review from Wired several weeks ago that gave Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor an almost unreal positive review. To be certain it was just that good of a game, we’re running a second review from Stuff and it seems by their review, it might be just that good of a game. :cool:
 
I wouldn't call the combat "piss easy", I've actually died a lot in the game and I know most others have too, and I consider myself relatively "good" at most games. You can't just take on an army of guys, at least not if they have spear throwers in the group, and especially not if there is a captain or two in the group.

I really wish they would release a god damn Crossfire profile for the game though!!! Force AFR and other profiles make the menus flicker like crazy and the mountains as well.
 
I actually just bought it. It was Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation giving a postive review that tipped me over the edge. He almost never likes anything, and I've never seen him recommend a bad game.
 
Playing the game and finding it not to suck ass. Which is rare among modern games. Certainly not perfect but not a bad game.

PROs
#1 Game is very cinematic. You could consider this like another Lord of the Rings movie.
#2 Despite killing lots of orcs, they somehow found a way to keep each one unique and fresh.
#3 The voice acting and animation is superb. The sound effects are great.
#4 As a mindless questing game they actually do have decent rewards and not just achievements.

CONs
#1 The game is assassin's creed in terms of gameplay combat. Though it is vastly improved.
#2 The combat ends up tedious eventually, but the game does start off hard. So as you progress the game does get easier and easier, which is strange.
#3 A lot of quests require you to use an ability that wasn't very well explained in how to do so.
#4 Running around picking up missions does get boring after a while.
 
I haven't put many hours into a game in years. At first I didn't pay attention the details in the game. Run and kill for as long as I could before I started getting killed by a non-stop barrage off goons. Then payed particular attention to my surrounding and the game got better. Still repetitive at times but pretty to look at.
 
Will it run under XP and an Nvidia 7950GT? How many SPF (seconds per frame)?
 
JeffDC said:
Will it run under XP and an Nvidia 7950GT? How many SPF (seconds per frame)?
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How about Ubuntu with Wine and an Intel HD 2000 integrated GPU? Hopefully it stays above one frame per minute...
 
Beat the game and have another con to add. QTE aka quick time events. Not as bad as other games but it's a major game mechanic in this game. I really do hate QTE's but at least it's not during cut scenes like most games. But still, why QTE?
 
Its really awesome. Considering its not anything to do with the franchises (thank god) its a pretty great abstract telling of stories.

The combat is Batman (WB Batman games at least) tight and the Nemesis system is really the meat and potatoes of the game. It sets it apart.

There was an awesome fight where I had built up a true army of followers around an elite war chief then I went apeshit against him and while fighting him his cohorts actually made up a song they were chanting while he was fighting me , seriously amazing.

Honestly it might be my GOTY.
 
Ashbringer said:
CONs
#1 The game is assassin's creed in terms of gameplay combat. Though it is vastly improved.
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I really don't know how people keep making this comparison... The combat in Shadow of Mordor is Arkham through-and-through. Assassin's Creed is stiff, single target combat. Shadow of Mordor is very much freeflow Arkham-style, only you're wielding a sword and bow instead of using fists and gadgets.
 
Godmachine said:
Its really awesome. Considering its not anything to do with the franchises (thank god) its a pretty great abstract telling of stories.
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It does add to the story by explaining the creator of the rings of power. It's unique in that it also does it through two characters.

The combat is Batman (WB Batman games at least) tight and the Nemesis system is really the meat and potatoes of the game. It sets it apart.
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The combat system is not something I would praise. It's not horrible but it could have been better. A lot of times I find myself trying to go in one direction and my character is doing something else entirely. The game does try to discourage button mashing by making you time your attacks, but it does come down to a game where you just repeatedly press a button or two. The Nemesis system is just a way to make dying a bad thing, which in today's games is rarely done. You die then the killer gets promoted and so does the rest of the army. All this does is when you're out in the world you may accidentally run into more than one badass guy, who spends a few seconds explaining how much he really hates you.
 
Armenius said:
I really don't know how people keep making this comparison... The combat in Shadow of Mordor is Arkham through-and-through. Assassin's Creed is stiff, single target combat. Shadow of Mordor is very much freeflow Arkham-style, only you're wielding a sword and bow instead of using fists and gadgets.
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It's the same idea. Left mouse button attacks and right button counter attacks. In creed games you have a gun, and in this game you have a bow. But this game does add more by allowing finishers and a sorta combo point system. The stealth system is also similar except you have a dagger and the Creed games use extendable wrist knifes.
 
Armenius said:
I really don't know how people keep making this comparison... The combat in Shadow of Mordor is Arkham through-and-through. Assassin's Creed is stiff, single target combat. Shadow of Mordor is very much freeflow Arkham-style, only you're wielding a sword and bow instead of using fists and gadgets.
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Arkham imo is very similar to creed combat except it is more entertaining simply because the "free-flo" animations just make it look alot more natural and awesome. Both are attack, counter, dodge combat mechanic systems.

Combat does get extremely easy for the most part though if you get too many archers/spear ranged or worse shield + spear infantry it can be difficult. Especially if you throw in a no vaulting captain with a powerful attack.

I have found this is the first open world game where it still is fun to mix it up with the random bands of bad guys in the world.

While still just as repetitive as Arkham and could be boring... the nemesis system at least give a purpose for mopping up the easy spawns as you run around (death threats/intel).

The open world is pretty generic though, there are 2 different areas and they both while unique from each other have little unique within them to the point where I don't know where I am when running around unless I look at the map and worse, there is no point either.

The nemesis feature is pretty awesome like I said it adds a hours to the game as you try and farm the system for combat perks... I would find myself pissed that I KILLED a specific captain. Cause I spent so much time boosting his level up.

The story is meh imo, I was pretty confused at first what was going on, yeah yeah family killed.... So either you need to be a LOTR lore fan or I just wasn't paying attention at the right times. I do think the setting is awesome, a unique and great way to tell the story of the bad guys (orcs) and how they live (drinking and fighting!).

I would say if you liked Arkham, this is a very good fighting version of that. The stealth isn't as good as arkham its all about the combat and combos.
 
Perhaps the combat mechanics are easy to master ... that doesn't make the combat in the game easy. When you are fighting a warchief with a poisoned weapon and a number of bodyguards ... it really isn't that easy. Combat can also be much more difficult before you get brand / control abilities.
 
Draax said:
Perhaps the combat mechanics are easy to master ... that doesn't make the combat in the game easy. When you are fighting a warchief with a poisoned weapon and a number of bodyguards ... it really isn't that easy. Combat can also be much more difficult before you get brand / control abilities.
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The problem with this combat system is that it's brainless when they basically tell you when to hit the buttons. This is the problem with Creed games and Batman games. A thing pops up above the enemies heads telling you what to do for the combat. Counter this dodge that. At some point I was just looking at animations to see when to hit buttons, like the game should be. I also don't need to counter or dodge everything as a simple swipe of the sword will usually do the trick.

But this is the problem with most modern games. Do what the buttons flashing on the screen says to do and you'll progress. In fact lets list all the things done wrong that modern games like to do.

Combat system that uses QTE. CHECK
Combat system that flashes button during gameplay. CHECK
Random and mostly pointless objectives thrown about in an open world. CHECK
The end boss is just a horde of enemies. CHECK

At least they saved us the regenerative health bars, mostly. But open world games aren't very fun when it looks like the developers just made a nice looking map and threw about quests. Which is now the general practice in game development, but it isn't fun. It's easy to make an open world and throw quests in it, but hard to design the open world for quests.

Artistically the game gets an A+ 100. Even the story writer gets an A+, cause its clear that somebody actually did their research about the Lord of the Rings lore. The gameplay though gets a C- at best. This is the kind of game I would only play again for story and not gameplay. Like Mass Effect games where you wouldn't play it again for the gameplay, unlike Dark Souls 2 which you would very much so.

I was never a fan of the combat system that both Batman and Creed games use. It's a game you play once and throw it in the corner to collect dust.
 
how long is the game?...are there lots of collectable type of BS to find like the AC games?
 
Alphonze said:
You can't just take on an army of guys, at least not if they have spear throwers in the group, and especially not if there is a captain or two in the group.
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Sure you can. Just makes you have to think a little bit about what you're doing. Once you get some of the higher-tier skills and unlock some of the weapon legends, it gets downright funny how many Uruks you can take down in a short period of time.
 
Godmachine said:
Its really awesome. Considering its not anything to do with the franchises (thank god) its a pretty great abstract telling of stories.

The combat is Batman (WB Batman games at least) tight and the Nemesis system is really the meat and potatoes of the game. It sets it apart.

There was an awesome fight where I had built up a true army of followers around an elite war chief then I went apeshit against him and while fighting him his cohorts actually made up a song they were chanting while he was fighting me , seriously amazing.

Honestly it might be my GOTY.
Click to expand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AV9W2ZdmjU

GOTY indeed.
 
polonyc2 said:
how long is the game?...are there lots of collectable type of BS to find like the AC games?
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The game took me about 4 days worth of 2-3 hours per day. And that's collecting everything. The game has 4 things to do besides the main missions. There are collectable items which just do nothing but give you small XP and a small story. There's also this picture that you slowly create by finding markers on the map. I thought something cool would happen, the wraith dude just says something and that's it. You can upgrade your weapons by doing weapon missions, but as far as I know it just changes the way the weapons look. Then you have missions to kill orcs that aren't part of the main mission. Just a way to get runes for weapons and mostly pointless. The best runes I've gotten so far are from main mission orcs. Even still, only a 1% or 2% different version of already existing runes.

There's more things to do in the game like hunting animals and saving captive people, but even I skipped that immediately cause I didn't expect much of a reward besides XP. But skip all the crap I did and the game can be beaten within a weekend. The hardest part was starting off in the game and learning the buttons that are used for do certain attacks. For example the ability to kill branded orcs is set to K on the keyboard. Pointless ability and an even more pointless location on the keyboard. The game makes use of keys like Ctrl, Z, X, C, F, especially Ctrl. Q just throws a useless knife and E stuns an enemy. Pretty good early combo in the game is E + Left mouse button repeatedly. That and execution ability will get you started nicely in the game. Without some basic combo finishers in the game, fighting a horde of orcs will probably end up killing you.
 
Draax said:
I immediately stopped watching that video when I saw the guy was using a keyboard+mouse. I'm not sure how someone can claim the combat is horrible when they aren't even using the proper control scheme.
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It flows well enough though. Sure, you'd rather have a controller for some things, but in general the mount + keyboard setup gets the job done and it undeniably helps when it comes to using the bow.
 
i wasn't impressed at all with the game. combat was overly simplified, feels like playing ass creed (sorry, might be biased but i hate ass creed), and the storyline seems thin and doesn't fit with lord of the rings.
 
Parja said:
Sure you can. Just makes you have to think a little bit about what you're doing. Once you get some of the higher-tier skills and unlock some of the weapon legends, it gets downright funny how many Uruks you can take down in a short period of time.
Click to expand...

Yup; even before you get the 'brand' ability, you have a scenario where you're required to kill 50 Uruks at once. Learn how to move and to use the special abilities you've acquired up to that point and it's cake- and it's a blast!
 
Draax said:
I immediately stopped watching that video when I saw the guy was using a keyboard+mouse. I'm not sure how someone can claim the combat is horrible when they aren't even using the proper control scheme.
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I've played the game to 90% completion (hoping to finish this week while wife is traveling for work) with mouse and keyboard.

The game is awesome, plays well with both control schemes, and will definitely be a contender for GOTY.
 
THRESHIN said:
i wasn't impressed at all with the game. combat was overly simplified, feels like playing ass creed (sorry, might be biased but i hate ass creed), and the storyline seems thin and doesn't fit with lord of the rings.
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So a game the gives the background of the person who crafted the rings of power... doesnt fit with the LoTR?

Ok then......
 
Limahl said:
So a game the gives the background of the person who crafted the rings of power... doesnt fit with the LoTR?

Ok then......
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I'm thinking those that say it doesn't fit within LoTR didn't actually play the game or didn't pay attention to the story.
 
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